Happy weekend everybody! I came up with the idea for this poster when I woke up, and tried to get the whole thing done in the hour before lunch, but other plans interfered. It’s kind of hard to design a robot on short notice. Luckily, I can hide most of him behind the skyline!

I’ve been thinking about how Labor Day may have a different meaning this year, when so many people are unemployed, but all I conclude is it’s still a pretty boring holiday. Therefore, it can be made more exciting with LASERS!

But really, what can’t?

To Stacy Downs:

I was surprised to find your three-page advertisement for Ikea was mislabeled as an “article” in House and Home. At first glance, I thought you were announcing the opening of a new Ikea branch. But that might actually be useful news for Kansas City citizens. Instead, we are urged to drive a trailer 440 miles across country to the Ikea in Minneapolis, as a way of getting around KC’s embarrassing lack of Swedish furniture stores. You’ve provided us with this ridiculous advertisement that at best causes groans from readers, and at worst causes envy and discontent with our own fair city. To publish an article like this makes you appear either as completely incompetent as a research reporter, or assistant to corporate propaganda of the worst kind.

I believe these quotes in particular prove my point:

“I stopped frequently throughout the cooking section, where my eyes grew big because of the small prices.”

“Plan to use a car with ample trunk space…consider a sport-utility vehicle, van or truck.”

“If you see an item you like, grab it because it’s difficult to go back to areas of the store…”

and my favorite,

“A weekly or monthly shuttle service [from KC to Minneapolis] would be great…So many people would use the service.”

Really? How many actual people do you know would make the 12hr round trip EVERY WEEK to shop at Ikea? Why would you write something so dripping in corporate marketing? After reading this, I did an internet search for “Ikea road trip” because your article sounded like it could have been written by Ikea and distributed to newspapers across the nation, for their journalists to fill in the blanks.

I understand, the House and Home section of the Kansas City Star is not the place to find world-changing news or literary masterpieces. But if your job is to write about interior decorating ideas and projects that are unique or local to the area…why does your article sing praises to a mega-corporation that doesn’t even register KC on its radar?!?!

I don’t wax political or financial very often, and I certainly don’t consider myself an expert, but I have to say: There’s no way we can pull out of a recession if people think they have to blow 880 miles worth of gas to buy cheap furniture in a different region, contributing to Minnesota taxes and sending big chunks of KC money to a Swedish mega corporation. No offense to Minnesota or Sweden: I love you guys, but I’d prefer our money support local small businesses, or at least stay in the MO/KS area.

So as much as I like Ikea (which I actually do: my Ivar shelving system rocks), I’m not signing up for getting flat-packed onto a shuttle and getting shipped all over the country. Not in the name of home decorating.

Sincerely,

Annie

Sliced roasted chicken, Monterey Jack, mayo lettuce, green onion and sweet relish on stone ground wheat. The green onions are from a living herb garden and they taste great! I’d never eaten onion flowers before either, but they are pretty tasty.

I designed the booklet back in April to be an educational guide for bicyclists. I got the idea when I wanted to find out whether I should ride my bike on the sidewalk or on the road, and realized that this information was not accessible without a lot of online research. Also, even if I followed the ‘correct’ way, I would be in the minority of bicyclists and receive harassment from drivers.

I needed to do a pro-bono project that semester in order to graduate, so it was an easy decision.

It wasn’t long after I’d conceived of the booklet that I discovered the Sustainable Transportation Committee (part of Ozark Greenways) had been working on the same idea! This is how I got to know Andy Cline: He was writing the content of a “Utility Cycling Booklet” but didn’t know when or how it would get published. Andy’s blog, Carbon Trace, is all about biking as transportation, so writing this book was waaay more his expertise than mine.

So we shot photos, drew maps, and I got underway designing the graphics and illustrations. By the end of semester I had several finished mockups via Kinkos and my teeny weeny shaky hands.

My show at the Student Exhibition Center. A&B Cycle even loaned us a bike!

From the school perspective, I was done. But we had kept the Committee updated as the project progressed, and by the time the booklet was finished, the Ozark Community Foundation had supplied the money to get it printed in a big run!

So, now these booklets are getting distributed all over the place by the City and other community organizations. It’s been so exciting to be involved in this project every step of the way, and see it going in such a good direction.

Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Hello Blog! I started the blog today, as part of my ‘greater website development plan.’ Currently I’m as excited about figuring out how Wordpress works as I was three years ago when I first tried making things in Adobe Illustrator. For an interpretation of my feelings at that time, see the picture above. But now, Illustrator is close to being my favorite design program, so that gives me hope for this new area of exploration.

Bombs away!